Former European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said Friday he's concerned that volatility fanned by high-frequency trading has become the new reality.
"We are experiencing the new behavior of the highly interconnected global system," he said in a CNBC "Squawk Box" interview.
"Clearly, that is suggesting that we have to live now with much higher, high-frequency level of volatility," Trichet said. "I'm afraid that this is now part of the system due to globalization, due to the level of interconnectedness at the global level and due to the interaction of machines."
"Machines are certainly playing a very important part in the high-frequency volatility that we have observed," he added.
Markets across the globe have been taken for a ride this week, with the Dow Jones industrial average having traveled more than 10,000 points ahead of Friday's open amid global growth concerns.
This recent volatility has led many to hold off bets for a Federal Reserve rates hike in September.
New York Fed President William Dudley said Wednesday that a September rate hike looks less compelling than it did before the rise in volatility. But Kansas City Fed President Esther George said it was "too soon to say it fundamentally changes that picture."
Read More Fed's George: Prepared for rate hike, despite selloff
"From my perspective, at this moment, the decision to begin the normalization process at the September FOMC meeting seems less compelling to me than it was a few weeks ago," he said.
Nevertheless, Kansas City Fed President Esther George said Thursday that a September rate hike was still in play.
"This week's events complicate the picture but I think it's too soon to say it fundamentally changes that picture, so in my own view, the normalization process needs to begin and the economy is performing in a way that I think it's prepared to take that," she said.